Sunday, October 24, 2004
Coming Home
A four-game road trip that started with a win and a pair of ties to end the regular season ended with a 1-0 loss at the hands of the Revolution in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semifinal. Second leg is next Sunday back at the friendly confines of Estadio Crew with only one goal to make up in the aggregate. The recap:
* No danger! We were not dangerous in the attack. Buddle and Martino were coming back too deep to get the ball in the first half, and the offensive subs in the second (Cunningham for Buddle and Washington for Elliott) did not add significantly to our attempts on net.
* Tactics were awry. We tried to be cute in our forays towards the offensive third, which plays right into the plodding "grinta" style of the Revs. We didn't run at them with the ball, we didn't pelt their net enough, and we didn't seem to have any ideas on changing our attack when it became apparent that we weren't having any success. Still, this game had 0-0 written all over it and that would have been a good result if not for one error in the 25th minute, leaving me to ask...
* Who had John?!?! WHY was Avery John allowed to just hold the ball about 30 yards from net, with no one coming to close him down, only to dribble in a bit and drive a laser into the upper corner, with which Buschie had NO chance. That strike has us behind in the series and in need of a multiple-goal win next week to advance in regulation time.
* No danger! We were not dangerous in the attack. Buddle and Martino were coming back too deep to get the ball in the first half, and the offensive subs in the second (Cunningham for Buddle and Washington for Elliott) did not add significantly to our attempts on net.
* Tactics were awry. We tried to be cute in our forays towards the offensive third, which plays right into the plodding "grinta" style of the Revs. We didn't run at them with the ball, we didn't pelt their net enough, and we didn't seem to have any ideas on changing our attack when it became apparent that we weren't having any success. Still, this game had 0-0 written all over it and that would have been a good result if not for one error in the 25th minute, leaving me to ask...
* Who had John?!?! WHY was Avery John allowed to just hold the ball about 30 yards from net, with no one coming to close him down, only to dribble in a bit and drive a laser into the upper corner, with which Buschie had NO chance. That strike has us behind in the series and in need of a multiple-goal win next week to advance in regulation time.
# posted by The Armchair Pundit @ 6:51 AM 
